China vies to be world's leader in electric cars

NY Times
Chinese leaders have adopted a plan aimed at turning the
country into one of the leading producers of hybrid and all-
electric vehicles within three years, and making it the

world leader in electric cars and buses after that.
The goal, which radiates from the very top of the Chinese
government, suggests that Detroit’s Big Three, already
struggling to stay alive, will face even stiffer foreign
competition on the next field of automotive technology than
they do today.
“China is well positioned to lead in this,” said David
Tulauskas, director of China government policy at General
Motors...
Continued: http://is.gd/qeiK/ChinaElectric

Someone's going to have to make a battery or a fuel cell that will run a
car with air conditioning and provide heat to warm the car at least 300
miles between charges or refills for them to be successful. Nothing
that I know of is practical or on the horizon for the driving of typical
Americans. I just drove my car to the grocery store and back probably
used 1/3 gallon of gasoline. Ran the heater which used the waste heat
from the engine to heat the car. For this kind of trip with batteries
it would have taken 50 lbs of battery maybe a hundred and that's without
any heat. I suppose cars will have some kind of heat pump using the AC
but then you get into ambient temperature problems. Golf carts,
forklifts, and trolling motors/batteries are reality and what we talk
abut electric cars. A fuel cell? That would be great if someone could
make a practical one for a car.
Maybe an electric car someday but probably not in my lifetime.

I've heard it said that we've squeezed pretty much all of the energy
storage that's possible out of chemical battery storage, and what we
need to take it further is some new elements added to the periodic table
(which naturally isin't going to happen).
I wouldn't worry about China and what it says about electric cars. It's
just economic sabre-rattling on their part, or a way to motivate their
people, give them some economic hope.

Hence my comment about the A Gore-ish false economy - meaning that
proponents of the electric with a vested interest in making it look more
economical than it really is will conveniently "forget" to factor in the
cost of the heat and the gullible "green" consumer who believes anything
they're told and wouldn't know how to factor something like that in even
if they had enough brain cells to realize that it *is* a factor won't
know the difference and will "feel good" about buying one. (pardon the
run-on sentence)

--
Bill Putney
(To reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my

But it's not stupid in some people's minds to fail to factor that heat
(the cost of the watts that will need to be converted into that heat)
into the cost of ownership and use. Heck - why don't you just tell the
green people that with global warming (which isn't real, but you can't
tell them that) there will be no need for any added heat. They'll
believe anything like that that you tell them.

--
Bill Putney
(To reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my

Log in

Motorsforum.com is a website by car enthusiasts for car enthusiasts. It is not affiliated with any of the car or spare part manufacturers or car dealers discussed here.
All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.